Projects in film
Memoriav initiates and supports projects for the preservation of endangered films.
Film - a highly fragile material
Implicit in the preservation of a film are a number of varied tasks which involve archivists, scientists and laboratories.
Nitrate films, the highly inflammable base used until the 1950's, must be copied onto a more stable support medium in acetate, called a safety.
The restoration of a film may, in certain cases, consist in a reconstitution, using fragments taken from one or several copies of the same film.
The original film will in principal never be used again, and will be preserved under conditions designed to slow down its natural decay, on premises kept at adequate and constant levels of temperature and humidity.
Acetate films from the 1960's and 1970's present other sorts of problems: the film or the soundtrack are often attacked by "vinegar syndrome", a process of chemical decay which, as its name indicates, produces a vinegary odour. Colour films lose their colour and take on a uniform pink hue.
Additional Information
List of projects supported by Memoriav
Survey of Swiss film collections: Summary
(further information in French or German)
Quick Links Film
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